Unsung Class of 2007

The patriotic thing to do

June 13, 2010

Editor's Note: This article is part of The Journal's annual Unsung Heroes feature. The stories in this series run from Memorial Day to Veterans Day, and feature profiles of veterans who served in wars and conflicts from World War II to the present day.

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MARTINSBURG - At the young age of 17, Nick Mangieri missed the fighting of World War II when he joined the Navy. That doesn't mean he was never in harm's way.

Article Photos

This Journal illustration shows some keepsakes and pictures from Nick Mangieri’s adventurous life. Clockwise from bottom right, Mangieri poses for a picture in 1946 during his specialized Navy training in Florida at age 18. Mangieri marches during basic training in 1946 at Great Lakes Naval Training Center near Chicago. He is pictured second on the left. Above, the marching formation are Mangieri’s aircrewman wings and ribbons honoring his service in the Navy from 1946 to 1948. Pictured to the left of the aircrewman wings are three patches representing his duty as a police officer in Anchorage and Palmer, Alaska. Above is Mangieri pictured last week. He is now 78. A map of Saipan is also pictured, where Mangieri served in the Navy from 1946 to 1947.

With his mother Irma Ziniti's permission, Mangieri enlisted as a combat aircrewman toward the end of 1945.

"All during the war after Pearl Harbor was bombed, it was a patriotic thing to do," Mangieri, now 78, said, "Everybody, especially the young guys, wanted to be in the service. I couldn't wait to get in, naturally. It was on everybody's mind."

He lived in Manhattan, and signs of the war were everywhere.

"Every day I had a chance, I'd wander up to something on 42nd Street," he said. "They had tanks in the window, Jeeps in the window. That was my thing to do after school every day."

Before enlisting, he celebrated Victory in Europe as a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol in a city buzzing with excitement in May 1945.

"I was in a parade after V-E Day down 5th Avenue," he said. "I was a cadet. That was exciting. Everybody in New York was cheering us on."

But at the time, there was no end in sight for the war in the Pacific.

When he graduated from high school at 16, he decided to go to college and then join the service, but a historical event that still rings in the minds of today's generations changed Mangieri's plans immediately.

"Then they had Hiroshima, Nagasaki at the end of the summer," he said of the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan in early August 1945. "It kind of messed me up as far as getting in when I wanted to get in."

He originally wanted to become a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps, which was a branch of the U.S. Army Air Forces, but he said he needed to be older and couldn't wait. Instead, he joined the Navy Combat Aircrew since it allowed recruits to enter at a younger age.

"They had the white scarves, and the peacoats, and the leather jackets," Mangieri said. "It was a gung-ho thing to do."

According to Mangieri, he wanted to be a gunner on a small bomber.

"Naturally, during the war, you see all the war movies. Everybody was gung-ho," he said. "That's what I wanted to do."

After basic training early in 1946 at Great Lakes Naval Training Center near Chicago, he received specialized training at the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Jacksonville, Fla., where he trained to become an aviation ordnanceman.

By mid-1946, he was sent to Saipan, a part of the Mariana Islands that was captured by U.S. forces from Japan in July 1944 as part of the island-hopping campaign. By the time he arrived, Japan had surrendered.

He was stationed at Kobler Airfield, a base that was previously occupied by Japanese forces. Dangerous remnants of the battle were scattered across Saipan.

"The island, because 70,000 troops invaded Saipan, defended by 30,000 Japanese, there was a lot of unexploded ordnance," Mangieri said. "When I volunteered for this, it was not a place you wanted to be."

Mangieri not only had to be careful with explosives all around, but also had to worry about rocket fire from friendly aircraft.

During the final few weeks of his eight-month duty in Saipan, he volunteered for a treacherous training assignment.

He helped construct and man a rocket-target range atop a plateau near Magicienne Bay in Saipan.

During the exercises, his superior officers were safely observing roughly half a mile away down the coast, but Mangieri was right in the flight path about 100 yards from the target.

"We were 50, 60 feet higher than the plateau," he said. "Planes would be coming in, firing their rockets at the targets. They frequently went off course - closer to me than they went to the target."

He acted as a sort of scorekeeper and radioed hits and misses to the officers.

"I thought it was kind of interesting at the time," he said. "When you're 16, 17 years old, it's exciting to see a rocket coming in at you - never thinking they would hit me."

After each run, Mangieri climbed down the cliff from the shack he manned, crossed the rocky surf, climbed up the steep plateau, fixed the target and returned to the shack - only to wait for another run and do it again.

Mangieri's main function as an aviation ordnanceman was to load weaponry onto torpedo bombers called TBM Avengers.

"One time we were loading a torpedo on a TBM," he said. "You rolled it under the plane. There were two of us cranking this torpedo up into the bomb bay. There was another airman inside the bomb bay loading it up. The cable snapped on one of our sides. We had this live torpedo drop on a skid. You have a 2,000-pound torpedo dropping at your feet."

Despite Mangieri's constant exposure to explosives, it was an illness that forced him to leave Saipan.

He suffered jungle rot, which was a military term for a fungus similar to athlete's foot. His case was severe - attacking most of his arms and legs.

"It messed my nails up," he said. "You develop infections because of it. They just couldn't get rid of it. They had to surgically cut my nails out eventually. It burned, itched. It would bleed. It was insidious."

He was discharged in March 1948 after serving a full two-year's duty, but only after spending roughly one year in numerous hospitals overseas and in the U.S. After his discharge, he was treated for months in a veterans hospital before he finally recovered.

Mangieri has authored three books detailing parts of his adventurous post-military life. He lived in the U.S. from Florida to Alaska, and also explored South and Central America.

"Passport to Danger: The Diary of an Adventurer" explains the time he spent in the early 1950s diamond prospecting and hunting in South America shortly after he left the Navy.

"Frozen Badge: Alaska Cover-Up" tells his tales as a police officer uncovering corruption in Alaska. "I was shot at, dogs were killed, they had contracts out on me," he said. "Alaska was a wild place."

After Alaska, Mangieri moved back to the East Coast. He spent some time in Florida working for the Organized Crime Bureau.

He then worked in Washington, D.C., exposing the corruption of Mayor Marion Barry and wrote of his exploits in "Broken Badge: The Silencing of a Federal Agent," his first book.

He finally retired in 1986 and settled in Williamsburg, Va.

In 2004, Hurricane Isabella destroyed his home in Williamsburg, and he moved with Jill, his wife of 23 years, to Spring Mill Farm between Martinsburg and Falling Waters. Three of his four grown children live in the area.

More information about Mangieri's books can be found on the Internet at www.valorpress.com.